The Secret Lives of Baked Goods Sweet Stories Recipes for America s Favorite Desserts Have you ever wondered where the ideas for baking red velvet cupcakes brownies birthday cake Girl Scout cookies and other dessert recipes came from Discover the history behind America s most popul

Have you ever wondered where the ideas for baking red velvet cupcakes, brownies, birthday cake, Girl Scout cookies, and other dessert recipes came from Discover the history behind America s most popular and nostalgic desserts with popular CakeSpy blogger and self proclaimed dessert detective Jessie Oleson Moore Moore has put her sweet sleuthing skills to work uncoverinHave you ever wondered where the ideas for baking red velvet cupcakes, brownies, birthday cake, Girl Scout cookies, and other dessert recipes came from Discover the history behind America s most popular and nostalgic desserts with popular CakeSpy blogger and self proclaimed dessert detective Jessie Oleson Moore Moore has put her sweet sleuthing skills to work uncovering the fascinating histories and tastiest recipes for America s favorite sweets, including whoopee pies, chocolate chip cookies, Baked Alaska, and New York cheesecake From romantic musings on how desserts got their names to sugar fueled scandals, these classic recipes and photographs are guaranteed to offer food for thought and leave you with plenty of room for dessert.

I'm no history buff, but reading about the history of desserts was right up my alley. Who knew that Duncan Hines was an actual person, and possibly the first "yelp-er" of his time (he was known for publishing lists of restaurants he enjoyed while on the road as an insurance salesman). And we have Mildred and Malitta of Michigan to thank for Rice Krispie Treats. This is a fun book, perfect for anyone who has ever wondered where pineapple upside-down cake even came from (I'll give you a hint: not [...]

Cakes, cookies, pies, puddings, bars…Whether these words make your mouth water or your waistline cringe in fear; one thing is for sure: these delectable treats are a major facet of our lives. How much do we truly know about these sugary concoctions? Jessie Oleson Moore takes a slice out of the mystery (pun, intended) in “The Secret Lives of Baked Goods: Sweet Stories & Recipes for America’s Favorite Desserts”.“The Secret Lives of Baked Goods” is a combination social history and r [...]

I expected this to be less of a cookbook and more of a . . . book-book. Maybe because the word stories comes before recipes in the title. If you're in it for the recipes, it looks like a great book. There are updated and modern recipes for popular and lesser-known (but traditional) baked treats. If you're reading it for the stories, history, and context, save yourself the trouble and do a quick check :). Reading this has, however, made me want to read more contextual recipe and cook books.

I've just begun this delicious, lovely cookbook and am already quite enamored of it! Of the recipes enclosed, some are old favorites, like Red Velvet Cake, some are new for me, like Opera Cake and Alice B. Toklas Brownies, all with accompanying stories special to the dessert. And ALL of the recipes are of desserts!Now, I've been gluten free since 2007, and none of these are gluten free, however, some use cake mixes as bases, meaning I can use a GF cake mix when I try these out.More review later [...]

"The Secret Lives of Baked Goods" is more than just a wonderful down-to-earth book of culinary delights like meringue pie, croissants, carrot cake and peanut butter cookies, it's a cornucopia of history, and anecdotes about tried-and true confections that titillate our taste buds. What I love about the book are the simple ingredients and instructions; an important element for a woman with a busy schedule and a family that loves a sugary treat. I have already recommended Jessie Oleson Moore's boo [...]

Informative and tasty :) A huge variety of mouth watering desserts. It covers simple classics to a bit more complicated, newer treats. Entertaining stories add texture and added meaning to this book. I enjoyed it very much.

Received the book for free through First Reads.*I made 5 recipes*The good. Some interesting and classic recipes with a bit of history. Make a good present for a novice baker. Cute illustrations, photos, vibrant pages. Good layout?The bad. Lots of dead space. While having margins and empty space is great for a cookbook for the cook to add notes, there was too much void. This could have been filled with more illustrations, more history on recipe, and a photo for every recipe. This was not bound v [...]

This was a fun tour through old and modern baked goods. There was a short background for each and a recipe, usually tweaked by the author. I've heard of most of the baked goods, some very common, but I had no idea how long they'd been around or where they came from. Funny how you don't realize how interesting this information is until you come across it. This is the kind of stuff I would have loved to learn in history class in school. I've always loved history of the more mundane things in life [...]

I had a few problems with this book, which saddened me. First, the recipes and "secret lives" portion of each item was extremely basic despite the authors list of sources (which were poorly formatted, particularly for websites she used) but I could past that by simply imagining that the book was intended for a beginner audience. What belies that assumption are sloppy omissions from the actual recipes (you need to flip back a few pages to the red velvet cake picture to determine how many cake pan [...]

This fun, larky little book both informs and entertains, and will give dessert-lovers (like me)lots of topics to chat about with each other: why Boston cream pie is called a pie even though it's clearly a cake, whether Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker were real people (Duncan yes, Betty no), when animal crackers first came on the scene and why they were sold for years in circus-themed boxes, what two states claim the distinction of having created whoopie pies, how carrot cake and red velvet cake b [...]

This book is perfect for those who read cookbooks like novels. Lots of good backstory about baking and desserts here plus the photographs are wonderful. Additionally, the book is exactly the right size, not too large for the kitchen or the cookbook shelf. The book would also make a great gift. The recipes are interesting, fun and cover all the classics like Boston cream pie, croissants, birthday cake and pineapple upside down cake. The recipes are all completely from scratch, so get out your mea [...]

This book combines two of my favorite things: history and sweets. It fell a bit short for me. I like a cookbook to be loaded with pictures, but this one had only sporadic photos. And the recipes were a bit complicateddry yeast. Too scary! It did provide for great car trivia on our recent road trip. When eating animal crackers, kids are most likely to eat what body part first? Back legs. What is America's most popular cookie? Chocolate chip (Interesting that chocolate chips were invented AFTER th [...]

A cookbook-baking-documentary that is delicious easy to follow recipes with baking history and fun facts sprinkled throughout. Fans of The Great British (or American) Baking Show will recognize some recipes such as the Princess Cake with its green marzipan top. I enjoyed reading the history behind iconic baked goods from elegant classic of Opera Cake to the comfy Pumpkin Pie to the showstoppers like Baked Alaskad the guilty pleasures of Oreos and Pop Tarts. This book really does have it all. Jus [...]

This cute book gives us the back story on popular (and not-so-popular) baked goods. It's mainly history, though she includes recipes. The recipes are a mixed back - many are pretty involved, and they feel less personal because they're not the author's. However, many of the stories - particularly about less popular, historical, commercial and international treats - are interesting. I would have liked more pictures.I'm not sure if it's a good trend or not, but I feel like every baking book I've re [...]

Ok, I haven't actually tried any of the specific recipes of the book, but I have tried lots of other variations of the same recipes. These are the classics of American sweets, many of them old favorites that I love. And there was plenty of new goodies that I have never eaten, or never had a good recipe to try for myself. The history of all these good things to eat was icing on the cake (pardon the pun), and this could be my new go-to dessert cookbook! Excellent read, even if I never tried any of [...]

Interesting background histories and recipes to many traditional desserts. Pop tarts were originally called Country Squares. The first Girl Scout bake sale was held in Philadelphia in 1932 and exploded there after. During WW II, ingredient shortages forced Girl Scouts to switch to selling calendars. And The first batch of gingerbread characters were presented by Queen Elizabeth I to visiting dignitaries baked in their own likeness. Contains more than 40 stories in all.

The chapters on forgotten desserts and foreign fare were good. One day I hope to work up to making a Princess Torte or even Croissants!I liked the history of the desserts but her cutesy-joking writing style needed to be tossed. If you were to buy this book, it would be because you liked baking but had zero cookbooks. Otherwise, borrow from the library like I did and photocopy those recipes you like!

A really fascinating book for a Brit as most of the baked goods and desserts in this book were new to me since arriving in the USA 5 years ago. A brief history and description of things like Boston Creme Pie etc (which seems a real mystery to me) is quite fascinating and the inclusion of recipes makes this quite a fascinating cookbook.

Really good book and interesting to find out about famous baked goods and how they were invented. I wish there were a few more pictures of the assembled baked goods but that's a minimal complaint. I really like that recipes are included and I want to try to make the traditional birthday cake, urban legend cookies, pink frosted cookies and smith island cake.

I'm biased, because the author is a friend of mine and a genuinely delightful person. Still, this is a very fun book--it gives the history behind a wide variety of baked goods, and then offers original recipes. The recipes all look extremely tasty, but most are easy enough for bakers at any level of experience. Beautifully illustrated and photographed, too.

Lots of classic recipes as well as some cool, obscure ones. Reading about the origin of the recipes was very interesting. Only negative: wish there were more photos of the food. Would definitely add this to my recipe book collection.

I always harp on the format of cookbooks, my pet peeve.Although the recipes were unnecessarily formatted to fill more than one page, and front and back of the same page, at least all of the parts were together. No shuffling pages to find the matching icing or filling. Nice recipes.

This book gives the history behind some of our favorite desserts. Along with the stories there is a recipe for said treat. I am only rating the book based on the stories not the recipes. Learned some fun facts such as October 23rd is National Boston Cream Pie Day.